“The best of you will not strike:” Al-Shafi‘i on Qur’an, Sunnah, and Wife-Beating

Abstract

Focusing on the theoretical and substantive works of the
 ninth-century jurist al-Shafi'i, namely the Risala and the Kitab al-Umm,
 this paper uses the Umm's treatment of husbands striking their
 recalcitrant wives as a case study to show that the Umm follows the
 Risala's methodological principles, but only up to a point. Al-Shafi'i
 aims to reconcile the Qur'anic evidence permitting physical chastisement
 with Muhammad's exemplary practice or sunnah discouraging men from
 striking their wives. Yet in allowing an additional, non-scriptural
 consequence for a wife's nushuz or recalcitrance, al-Shafi'i departs
 from his stated intention to rely exclusively on revealed texts.